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I LOVE that she is walking!!!

Elsie walks everywhere in the house.

She is doing so great!!!

She still can't get up without holding onto something to pull up on, but we are working hard on that.

Outside the house she still uses her walker, but we are slowly trying to work church in without the walker, then maybe school.

She is just such an awesome little girl!

She is such a hard worker!

We LOVE you Elsie Rose!!!

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We absolutely, positively LOVE our children!!!!

They make me CRAZY, frustrated, happy, sad, LOVED, stressed, hyper, exhausted, MOODY, excited, proud, joyous, BoNkErS, but most of all they make me feel like the luckiest Mom in the world!!!

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(Here are a few secrets from our little photo shoot)

Cassi's skirt is really a shirt....

This is the first time Porter has ever worn shoes!

Those sunflowers (in the back) are picked from another location and stuck into the weeds here.....

All but Elsie are wearing thrift store items.

I am on the other side of a huge ditch...

Our trip to this spot included...

-Me carrying the chair down, then up the ditch...

-Me carrying Elsie while guiding Madi down and then up the ditch

-Then back to get Porter and guide Cassi down and then up the ditch...

-Another trip for the sunflowers out of the car.

*** Then when we were done, I did the reverse order***

Needless to say, I was a sweat-ball!!!

But Madi assures me it is good to sweat!

And the chair is borrowed from my awesome friend Elizabeth...

My kids were such GREAT sports!!!

I sure do LOVE them!!!

I can't wait to hang this on my wall!!!

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I LOVE when they DON'T FIGHT!!!!!!!!!

While trying to get them all ready for bed, I peaked into Madi's room and saw this.

I thought it was so sweet...

'cause this NEVER happens!!

And I LOVE when it does!

NEED HELP!!!!

I want the honest truth...

your honest opinion!!!

I get the opportunity of shooting the Boise Fire fighter Calendar this year.

But we are stuck on one issue.

Do we try to shoot a calendar that has cool action/artistic/emotional shots...something that can be hung in the administrative offices in Boise...

OR

Do we go for the classic beef-cake calendar???

The reason for the calendar is to raise money for the burn-out fund, money to go towards fire victims.

So we want to sell as many as we can.

There are a couple other cities (Eagle) that have just started to make calendars, before we never had competition...

So what do we do?

What would you buy????

What would you hang in your home???

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I LOVE Relief Society

No, I am not gonna get all churchy on you....

But today has been a very Relief Society filled day!

Of course at church, where the lesson was about Relief Society and the blessing it brings to our lives...

I have been so blessed in my life by way of the Relief Society...most recently the help we got from everyone when we had to go back to the hospital after Porter was born.

I wish all those ladies could really know how much we appreciate that, and their willingness to help.

But then today I had the opportunity to take dinner to one of the ladies I visit teach who just had a sweet, beautiful baby girl.

Visiting Teaching, another great blessing.

I have so many special friendships made because of Visiting teaching...

And the last thing today was the opportunity I had to sew a quilt top for the Humanitarian service project we have coming up.

They supply me with all the blocks and I just sew it together, but the thought that I had a hand in something that will keep a family warm in the cold night.

There sure is something neat about being a part of that!!!

Anyway, I am so grateful for the blessing of having Relief Society in my life!!!

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ALSO...

Happy Birthday to my little sister Sara, who has always been the peace-maker in the family and is just about the sweetest thing anyone could ever meet!

I love you Sara and I am so lucky to have your example in my life!

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I LOVE to re-purpose!!!

Can you guess what this WILL be???

(It's not there yet, but getting there...)

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We LOVE visitors!!!

We love when people come to visit!!!

Aunt Kay (Brent's sister), Uncle Johnny, and their daughter Monica came to stay with us for a couple days!

We are already having so much fun!

It is great to have such a great family!!!

(Thanks Monica for letting our girls maul you!)

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Elsie LOVES her fishies!!!

Yes, there are fishies in there...

they are just so tiny!!!

The sales lady told us not to get the ones we wanted, cause our tank wasn't big enough!!!

So each of the girls picked out a little guppy.

Madi's is orange, named Rainbow.

Cassi has a yellow one named Sunny.

And Elsie's is purple...and her name is Dory.

This is Elsie's late birthday present, that we finally got around to getting.

She loves them so much!

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We LOVE how proud the girls are of their art.

Tonight the girls had their art exhibit.

Each child from the classes got to display their favorite piece.

The girls thought it was pretty cool to have their own art show!!

I loved how proud they were when they saw their pieces on the wall!

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I LOVE early Christmas presents!!!

We have needed new carpet...for a LONG time!!!

We finally decided to do it.

Well, we decided to go price it.

We found this piece that both of us fell in love with...and it wasn't too far out of our price range!
One question...does anyone think it is too dark?

I put pictures of the sample next to our couch, and the wood floors.
We are loving it.

The only little problem is that the carpet has a small olive green tint to it...you can't really see it, and I don't think I would have noticed it if the sales lady hadn't said it.

I just worry that the whole room done with end up looking green.

But when it comes down to it, we both love it, so why not?

Anyway...tell me your opinions on the dark???

Brent and I like it cause it is different.

Anyway, happy early Christmas to us!

(I wish it wouldn't take 2 weeks to get in!!!)